The cactus pear was a big fat whopping disappointment of a challenge food. Not only did the tiny needles work their way into a few of my fingers, but the interior also tasted like potatoes and mud. I was so excited when I cut open the pear and saw the ruby interior. Looks can be deceiving, that’s all I can say.
ME: Do you guys know what this is called?
LAUREN: Ugly fruit?
ME: No, we ate the ugli fruit, you remember that one right?
LAUREN: I said Oogly fruit.
ME: OK, well it’s not that either.
LAUREN: Is it a kind of fruit?
ME: Yes. What is it called?
LAUREN: Well it kind of looks like Sam’s big head.
ME: That’s not nice.
LAUREN: I mean not the color.
ME: Again, not nice.
SAM: My head is big. My head is going to be like MegaMind!
ME: OK, we’re getting off track. Have you ever heard of a cactus?
LAUREN: It’s called a cap-tus.
ME: Thanks for correcting me. Ever heard of a captus before?
LAUREN: Yes, it lives in the desert.
ME: That’s right. A cac-tus grows in the desert.
LAUREN: And the forest.
ME: So this is called a cactus pear. Do you guys want to touch it gently? Careful, it’s got little spikies in it. I didn’t realize it but I noticed that my fingers have tiny little spikes in them now.
ME: What do you think it’s going to look like on the inside? Guesses?
LAUREN: Yellow or greenish?
ME: Sam?
SAM: Nothing.
ME: Nothing? It’s just going to be air on the inside?
SAM: Yes.
ME: (Cutting) look what it looks like on the inside!
LAUREN: Purplish?
ME: Yes, I was so surprised to see that. Anyone want to smell it? Does it smell good?
EMMA: Yeah.
LAUREN: I think it smells great.
ME: Let’s see if we can cut out a little piece.
EMMA: I want to try it.
ME: I think you’re supposed to spoon it out or something.
LAUREN: Do they make it out of jelly?
ME: I don’t know. It kind of seems like it. But nobody makes it out of anything. That’s the point of nature, it just grows like that. Try it.
LAUREN: I don’t like it.
ME: Super mealy. And the seeds are hard.
LAUREN: No they aren’t.
ME: Kind of has a potatoey texture to it. Kind of like a mashed potato texture with seeds. Emma likes it, look, she’s eating it (I’m silently gagging)
ME: Well, that was a big flaming disappointment.
LAUREN: Yeah.
Thank you for this post as I would have been tempted to try cactus fruit had I seen it in the store. Now that you have so eloquently advised that it tasted like potatoes and mud, I won’t bother.
Have a great day.
Sophia
Thanks Sophia, glad I helped you avoid a crisis : )
I saw one of these things in a grocery store once. I was curious about it, but it sounds like I made the right choice when I didn’t buy one.
http://joycelansky.blogspot.com
Maybe I got a few bad ones- but I actually got two and both tasted like that. So no, I would definitely not recommend. There are a few others that we’ve done on the challenge that I’d never tried and were great- the mangosteen and the rambutan come to mind. Not always easy to find, but if you ever run into them, worth trying.
Wonder if it would be good roasted? Like a root vegetable?? The color looks almost like a beets…
lets do a challenge the weekend we are together with all the girls:)!
I’m in : ) Will try to find something new for us to eat (if I can remember). Maybe this might be ok roasted, will do some research and will let you know. The seeds were so hard, and the surrounding fruit was soft already- who knows. There has to be a reason people buy this thing.
Weird, OK, I found a YouTube video set to old school dance tunes that shows someone peeling it, and then smashing it by hand and making it into a smoothie. Seems like a lot of work, and I didn’t think the taste was all that great. Think I’ll pass on this one…